Wednesday, 3 October 2007

GCAP Europe meeting in Rome

GCAP Europe (Global Call to Action against Poverty) held its annual meeting in Rome between the 13th and 15th of September 2007, with the aim of constructing its vision for political change for the coming three years. The new EU member state GCAP campaigns from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Romania and Slovenia were present. The participation from BG, H, MT and RO was made possible through TRIALOG support.

The main question tackled during the meeting was: “What are our objectives for change in the next three years?” Participants noted that GCAP Europe had no roadmap for the future, and during the three intense days of workshops and discussion set out to agree what changes to make in the next few years and what GCAP Europe might set out to achieve together. In particular the meeting set out to explicate what additional framework to Montevideo we as Europe believe is useful. It was made clear from the start that all the demands need to be made within the resources that we have i.e. within what is achievable and within what is in our power.

Participants agreed to find ways to measure the changes they aspire to and to create attainable indicators of success. Participants also agreed to more action at a European level, in particular in view of the forthcoming 2009 Elections to the European Parliament. Recurring key words were Governance, More and better Aid, Trade Justice, Debt Cancellation, Gender Equality, Climate Change, Corporate Accountability and the Europe – Africa partnership.

Participants also shared their plans for the forthcoming International Day against Poverty (October 17), agreeing that the main objectives of the day will be to raise awareness, put pressure on political decision makers, mobilise mass numbers of people, ensure wide media coverage, and demonstrate the ever growing number of people that agree with the main aims of GCAP.

The meeting concluded with participants agreeing to set a deadline to improve the strategic framework by January 2008 in view of having in January 2008 a GCAP Europe Strategic Framework 2008 - 2010.

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